Istanbul Intrigue Session 1

Their wallet’s freshly restored by their final wages from the Royal Navy, halfling thief/child impersonator Terry Grey, and gnome mage Eric Smith search the delights and dangers of Istanbul’s grand bazaar for exotic equipment and mundane medicinals.

In a shady corner of the market, Terry finds an eldren selling wares suspiciously similar to equipment used by the Royal Navy. Grey haggles over two bottles of diluted chloroform from the eldren before spotting a familiar bag of tools: the surgeon’s bag belonging to Tobbins, the traitorous doctor of the Unicorn. Terry buys the silver plated tools and trades in his old set to seal the deal.

Eric awkwardly stumbled through the streets looking for a wand maker, eventually finding an establishment called Blind Baver’s. He bought a Lignum Vitae wand from the creepy magically corroded shop, and set out to the local Guildhall. The hall was quite small  due to the Magical Guild’s lack of influence in the Ottoman Empire. The gnome searched the guildhall's library for any rare books of foreign spells. Finding a copy of a rare grimoire called “Azif”, Smith tried his shy best to bargain for the book with a copy of the Aluminate Bible and his own Magical Primer. The pigman librarian was uninterested, but directed him to Ayyam, a local amateur scholar with an impressive collection. 

Eric walked to the scholar’s address, a luxurious byzantine home. After being led by a young handmaiden into a garden courtyard, he met Ayyam, a lesser wife of a prosperous merchant.  Charmed by his lack of grace, and delighted by the gift of a strange magical tube, courteous and beautiful Ayyam gave him access to her collection. Unfortunately, the books were all written in languages Eric did not understand, and he was too shy to ask for help, so the gnome grabbed the thickest book with the most interesting pictures he could find. Before leaving, Ayyam's handmaiden quietly told Eric her mistress would appreciate his help with a problem if he would return that evening. Back at the Guildhall, Eric traded his random book for the copy of Azif.

Terry met his friend outside, and after feeding some starving children Eric told Terry about his invitation for that evening. The two investigators crossed the Bosporus and reached Ayyam’s home. A servant led to a room divided by a flimsy see through curtain; on the other side of the curtain sat Ayyam. She told them her problem. Her husband had bought 12 sapphires and had a jeweler named Yodfah fashion the jewels in to a necklace. He gave the necklace to her, but one of the stones fell out and shattered. Yodfah replaced the stones with glass replicas, cheating her husband and ruining his gift. Not telling her husband, Ayyam decided to quietly take care of the matter herself. Yodfah is merely a Jeweler but also owns an illicit winery. If Eric and Terry would to sneak into his winery, hidden behind a magic waterfall, and find his business ledger, she could give it to the authorities, and they would imprison Yodfah for the taxes owed on the wine.  Always willing to help a lady, the two troublemakers agreed.

They left instructions for the porcupineman sailor Zydeco to follow, and traveled s a few miles out of Istanbul to the waterfall. They sat and watched. Their patience was rewarded when the waterfall dried up, revealing a steel door. The door opened allowing a small mule train lead by Arabian dwarves to travel down a small path. The mule train  left, the door closed, and the waterfall began again. Their location confirmed, the two pondered how to proceed inside.